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On Freethought Radio, Aleta Ledendecker tells co-hosts Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker about the secular invocation she delivered before the City Council of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, that was rudely cut off by the mayor and boycotted by city council members. Then they talk with California attorney Michael Newdow about his new federal lawsuit challenging “In God We Trust” on U.S. currency.

Try to do research on the Holocaust online and you’re bound to get bogged down by claims that are difficult to check out by Holocausts denialist who protray themselves as courageous mavericks challenging orthodoxy and censorship. Brian Dunning has a look at the industry of Holocaust denialism on Skeptoid.

Gordon Bonnet has a look at another form of denialism, anthropogenic climate change denialism. A guy named Ross McLeod has demonstrated that if you can throw around fancy sounding terms like the Stefan-Boltzmann equation you can get people to believe you know what you’re talking about, even if your math is way off.

Campbell Soup Company will soon start voluntarily labelling their products for GMO content. A good idea, or not? The Skeptic Rogues of the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe have a look at the question.

In the final segment of the show, we’ll hear Susan Jacoby’s lecture entitled “The Conscience of an Atheist” delivered at the Center For Inquiry’s Reason for Change conference in Buffalo, NY last June. Jacoby explores how we should approach opposition to secular ideas of morality, and the personal comfort she has found through her atheism and secular views, even in times of great loss and sadness. Jacoby is the author of several critically acclaimed books, including Freethinkers (2004 ) and the New York Times bestseller, The Age of American Unreason (2008).

After discussing atheism in the news over the past week, Annie Laurie Gaylor and Dan Barker celebrate the birthday of freethinking composer Burton Lane by playing his irreverent song “The Begats,” from Finian’s Rainbow. Then they talk with skeptical author Michael Shermer about his new book, The Moral Arc: How Science and Reason Lead Humanity Toward Truth, Justice, and Freedom. The skeptic rogues from the Skeptic’s Guide to the Universe podcast discuss irrational opposition to the genetically modified crop known as “golden rice” Then, in the aftermath of last week’s winter storm Juno, Gordon Bonnet of Skeptophilia delves into the political Right’s paranoia that the National Weather Service and the even weather itself has been corrupted by liberals who want to destroy America. Finally in hour two, we’ll hear Dr. Phil Zuckerman from Pitzer College in Claremont, California explain the dramatic increase of Americans who report they eschew religion. Back in the 1950s, fewer than 5% of Americans described themselves as nonreligious. Now approximately 30% identify as such. What factors are contributing to this unprecedented wave of secularization? And what are some likely consequences? Zuckerman’s latest book is entitled Living the Secular Life: New Answers to Old Questions.

Check out the Ithaca Darwin Days schedule of events right here. Events begin this coming Friday.

We start our one year anniversary show as we do each week with Freethought Radio, the show produced by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. We’ll hear updates about FFRF complaints in Texas and Alabama, as well as the Cullman County “Prayer Caravan” saga, in which the governor takes sides against FFRF. Then Dan and Annie Laurie interview Susan Jacoby about her newly released book, The Great Agnostic: Robert Ingersoll and American Freethought. Afterwards, we’ll hear Skeptic Rogues Steven Novella and Evan Bernstein interview climatologist Michael Mann. Are people who call themselves “climate change skeptics” really skeptics? The we’ll hear infectious disease MD Mark Crislip’s take on the latest research on the multibillion dollar swindle known as homeopathy. Finally, to celebrate one year of Skeptical Sunday, a reprise on the show of a very cogent statement of the values and viewpoint we stand for from Jeremy Beahan of the Reasonable Doubts podcast, his “atheist sermon.”

Syndication

The Radio Show

Sunday mornings 8-10 AM on WRFI FM 88.1 in Ithaca, 91.9 in Watkins Glen and streaming from WRFI.ORG. Also 10PM-midnight on Geneva Community Radio online.

The Podcast

Sleep in on Sunday? We approve! Subscribe to Skeptical Sunday as a podcast. In iTunes, choose "Subscribe to podcast" and paste in "https://skepticalsunday.wordpress.com/feed/". You can also listen to the past several shows in your browser by clicking on the link at the bottom of each show description.

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Worthy Quote

Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cosy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigour, and the great spaces have a splendour of their own." - Bertrand Russell, "What I Believe", 1925